When the University director joins the digital interview via Teams, she appears well rested, refreshed and happy. Already before the pandemic, she tried to encourage her colleagues, not least those outside Lund, to use digital tools for travel-free meetings.
“But I met a lot of resistance, including technical problems with video and audio. Now we have learnt to use these tools. We have really made a huge digital leap forward”, she says.
The workload is still heavy due to adaption of teaching activities
This is one of the positive outcomes of the crisis, according to the University director, although she emphasises that we are not yet out of it. The organisation is prepared for new outbreaks and, in particular in the faculties, the workload is still heavy due to the adaptation and reorganisation of teaching activities.
“But here in the central administration, we seem to be gradually going back to normal, even though many of us continue to work from home.”
Susanne Kristensson believes that some of the remote work is here to stay; we have learnt to work in new ways that could turn out to be beneficial even when the pandemic is over.
"Everyone worked towards the same goal and we succeeded!"
Thinking back over the spring and the uncertainty around Covid-19, the intensity in the crisis management group, the rapid and radical vice-chancellor’s decisions and, not least, the organisation’s adaptation and reorganisation, she smiles broadly.
“I am so impressed. What the whole University has done is amazing. How much we can achieve when we gather our strengths and collaborate. Everyone worked towards the same goal – to make it work – and we succeeded!”
The crisis management group, which mainly consists of the heads of division in the University’s central administration, is a preparatory body for the vice-chancellor who then takes the decisions. Susanne Kristensson explains how, throughout the spring, the University maintained its line organisation, working in the same way as it does when preparing central policy documents.
“Only everything went much faster. There were some abrupt changes, and perhaps not everything was done as meticulously as it should. But there has to be room for re-doing things and correcting errors”, she says.
A learning group is being set up
The group’s preparatory work was also governed by other public authorities’ recommendations, such as those of the Public Health Agency of Sweden and the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs with regard to incoming and outgoing travel. But already at the start of the year, a preparatory group was set up specifically for exchange with China, which is quite extensive at the University. Then things went on from there, and Susanne Kristensson believes the crisis management group worked with great expertise.
“Perhaps we should have utilised even more of the research expertise available within LU on crisis management”, she says. She hopes for a thorough evaluation of the group’s work once the crisis is over.
A first step in that direction is the learning group currently being set up. It is to gather and utilise both positive and negative lessons from last spring’s Covid-19 crisis.
Internal communication a weak link
One weak link in the acute crisis management process was communication, according to Susanne Kristensson. And internal communication in particular.
“It is difficult to reach all employees and students with quick information”, she says. “Reaching the right target group with the right information at the right time and in the right language. And perhaps also the other way around – that people out in the organisation don’t feel that their questions have reached us.”
Other softer and less measurable shortcomings could be those deriving from fewer physical meetings and working from home a lot. Susanne Kristensson raises the issues of the loss of that power and energy you get from meeting in person, and the conditions when working from home that don’t meet the requirements for a physical work environment. She also sees a major challenge in managing people remotely.
For herself, however, as head of the University administration in charge of just over 800 employees through the heads of divisions and units, Susanne Kristensson does not think that she has missed or lost so much in her day to day work.
“Most of my contacts take place via email or telephone anyway – and I think I have a good dialogue with my closest colleagues,” she says. “Many of my business entertainment and travel commitments have been cancelled, giving me more time for other work duties. But of course this comes at the cost of fewer external contacts that I hope to be able to reestablish as soon as the crisis is over.”